1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved automatic hydroponic garden. More particularly, it relates to such a hydroponic garden in which required maintenance is minimized and trouble-free results may be obtained. It also relates to an improved hydroponic gardening method which may be practiced by the apparatus of this invention.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The art or science of hydroponics is, of course, well known and developed. The term hydroponics refers to the use of aqueous solutions containing nutrients and the absence of soil in the growing of plants. Some form of a growing medium or inert support, such as rocks or synthetic materials, are commonly used for supporting the plants. However, unlike traditional horticulture involving the use of soil, the sole source of nutrients for the plants is the aqueous solution.
As typically practiced, hydroponics is a labor intensive operation. The aqueous nutrient solutions must be drained into a reservoir periodically, often several times a day. As a result, the use of hydroponics has hitherto been largely restricted to commercial scale greenhouses, horticulture laboratories, and similar environments where relatively large amounts of time may be dedicated to caring for the plants and maintenance of the hydroponic equipment.
Various attempts have been made in the past to provide smaller hydroponic units for home use. These usually involve dripping the nutrient solution from a reservoir through the growing medium. However, it is difficult to achieve a constant environment for the plant roots with such a system. Further, to the extent that smaller scale units have been modeled on larger scale, commercial hydroponic units, they have been both too expensive and too demanding of attention to have achieved success in the market place.
More recently, it has been proposed to use aquarium air stones to aerate a nutrient solution in a single container below the main body of plant roots. However, such an approach tends to subject the roots themselves to agitation, which impedes plant growth.
Thus, despite the fact that a hydroponic garden of a given size will yield as much as a conventional soil garden eight times its size, since nutrients are delivered directly to the roots, and extensive root systems are therefore not developed by the plants in a struggle to find nutrients and moisture, a need has hitherto remained for further development of small scale, automatic hydroponic units suitable for home use.